Prologue

Look through the forest and see a cold, gray concrete building. High electric fences and glaring floodlights surround it. Dogs and men patrol the borders, guns ready to kill.

Inside, harsh artificial lights line the sterile halls. Men and women in spotless uniforms roam the corridors with clipboards and pens. More guards are inside the building, and cameras run night and day.

This hospital houses a single patient. She is in a narrow bed in a large room surrounded by monitors. Tubes stick into her heavily bruised flesh. Her long silver hair is fanned out on the pillow around her head. The nurses know they should cut it, but there"s no point. It will grow back to the same length overnight. The woman"s lips, despite the coma, are flushed pink with color.

She is a sleeping beauty, and she is dreaming of blood and revenge on the witch that put her there…and the witch that will set her free.